US doom merchants Grails will release the fourth in their Black Tar Prophecies vinyl series next month.

One of the best bands still peddling that post-Neurosis doom metal sound, this is Grails’ first release since 2008 sleeper hit Doomsdayer’s Holiday, and marks a revival of the Black Tar vinyl series (1, 2 & 3 were released in 2006, and are collected on a convinient CD the same year) where the band can “explore total head music” away from worrying about cohesion and production in the same way they do on their albums.

The press sheet tells us that “in this volume Grails combine backmasked Satanic tape collage with old Emmanuelle soundtracks, pushing them further in the direction of a classical Italian melodrama soundtracked by Nurse with Wound. The Black Tar material is conceived slowly, in between tours and full-length albums, giving the series its own experimental space and keeping its final sum unknown even to its practitioners.

“As before, the series’ format will consist of two vinyl EPs and an eventual CD version. Like the slab of black slate in the opening of Kubrick’s 2001, Black Tar is an attempt to bring the ritual act of music back to its original mysterious genesis, where the listener and artist both stare into a nebula’s electric cloud before it takes its inevitable shape as a planet.”

BTP4 will be released on Important Records. A new Grails album is expected in Autumn.

Oh, and Grails are also touring Europe from the 4th to the 16th of next month. Those dates:

May 4 | Utrecht – NL | Tivoli
May 5 | Leuven – BE | Stuk
May 6 | Leipzig – DE | UT Connewitz
May 7 | Prague – CZ | Klub 007
May 8 | Berlin – DE | Friction Festival
May 9 | Athens – GR | Sfentona Club
May 11 | London – UK | The Luminaire w/ Philip Jeck
May 12 | Birmingham – UK | Hare and Hounds
May 13 | Manchester – UK | Ruby Lounge w/ Rose Kemp
May 14 | Glasgow – UK | Nice N Sleazys w/ Rose Kemp
May 16 | Minehead – UK | ATP